uwa no sora lit. ‘the sky up above’
Japanese idiom, everyday. To be lost in thought and not paying attention.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 上の空
?
Everyday Japanese for when your body is present but your mind has floated off. It often comes with で plus a verb (“上の空で話を聞く”, to listen with your mind elsewhere) or as a description with だ (“今日は上の空だね”). Teachers, partners and bosses all say it, usually as a complaint.
Also said うわの空
上の空
in real sentences
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トムは授業中上の空だった。
Tomu wa jugyōchū uwa no sora datta.
Tom was inattentive in class.
Tatoeba, sentence by tommy_san, translation by peterius, CC BY 2.0 FR
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明らかに上の空よね。
Akiraka ni uwa no sora yo ne.
Your mind is obviously elsewhere.
Tatoeba, sentence by small_snow, translation by CM, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 上の空
come from?
The Daijisen (via Kotobank) lists three senses: being distracted, the sky above, and something unreliable or without basis. It quotes The Tale of Genji (the Yūgao chapter) for the sky sense, where a moon drifts in the upper sky. The dictionaries don’t explain how the sky came to mean a wandering mind, but the picture of thoughts floating off upward is easy to see.
Mistakes learners make with 上の空
Reading 上 as うえ. In this phrase it’s the old reading うわ, as in 上着 (uwagi), so “うえのそら” sounds wrong.
Other Japanese idioms like 上の空
Spot a mistake in 上の空
?
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